The Sacred Cow Slaughterhouse

Apparently, Fecesbook is defending Nazis now. Sieg Heil, Facebook!  You Nazi cocksuckers!

www.Mewe.com is probably the only safe platform out there.

Not mine, but I don't want to see it go away.

http://www.skeptician.com/skeptician/skeptician.nsf/archive/20030305-1039+PM?OpenDocument&count=-1



Today, Le Monde released this year's list of French Favorites Awards. The annual list highlights the preferences and tastes of the world's most stylist culture.

This years choices were:

General Awards
Favorite Dance: Goose Step
Favorite Oppressor: Germany
Favorite Color: Yellow
Favorite Garment: Turncoat
Favorite Footwear: Flip-Flops
Favorite Headwear: Jackboots
Favorite Animal: Weasel
tied
Chicken
Favorite Beverage: Whine
Favorite Breakfast Food: Waffles
tied
Milktoast
Favorite Pet: Pussy Cat
Favorite Illegal Oil Trading Partner: Iraq
Favorite Liberator: United States
Favorite Rebuilder of Nation After Being Decimated in Two World Wars: United States
Favorite Nation to Protect Entire Continent Against Josef Stalin and Nikita Kruschev: United States
Favorite Nation to Call On When We Screw the Pooch in Southeast Asia: United States
Favorite 225-Year-Old Ally to Completely Dick Over for Short Term Political Gain at the Expense of World Peace: United States
Favorite Flavor: Chunky Surrender Monkey
tied
The Bitter Taste of Humiliating Defeat
Favorite Day to Surrender: June 22, 1940
Favorite Time of Day to Surrender: Morning
Favorite Place to Surrender: Rethondes
Favorite Surrender Outfit: Pierre Cardin (turtleneck, slacks, sport coat)
Favorite Car to Drive to Surrender Location: Citroen C3
Favorite Pen to Sign Surrender Treaty: Montblanc Noblesse Oblige (blue ink)
Favorite Meal After Signing Surrender Treaty: Humble Pie
Favorite Activity After Surrendering: Call United States for Help
Special Music Awards
Favorite Cheap Trick Song: Surrender
Favorite Cede Song: Surrender
Favorite Chemical Brothers Song: Surrender
Favorite Dave Lubben Song: Surrender
Favorite Debby Boone Song: Surrender
Favorite Diana Ross Song: Surrender
Favorite Elvis Presley Song: Surrender
Favorite Greg Buchanan Song: Surrender
Favorite Heikki Silvennoinen Song: Sweet Surrender
Favorite James Johnson Song: Surrender
Favorite Joe Strock Song: Surrender
Favorite John Lomacang Song: Surrender
Favorite Jonathan Butler Song: Surrender
Favorite Joshua Song: Surrender
Favorite Joshua's Trumpet Song: Surrender
Favorite Kut Klose Song: Surrender
Favorite Lisa & Anthony Testa Song: Surrender
Favorite MK featuring Alana Song: Surrender
Favorite Michel Colombier Song: Surrender
Favorite Roma Song: Surrender On Demand
Favorite Rosie Gaines Song: I Surrender
Favorite Sarah Brightman Song: Surrender
Favorite Sarah McLachlan Song: Sweet Surrender
Favorite Seek Song: Surrender
Favorite Single Gun Theory Song: Surrender
Favorite Surrender To The Air Song: Surrender to The Air
Favorite Sydney Mohede Song: Surrender
Favorite Tracy Lyons Song: Surrender
Favorite Twice Song: Time to surrender
Favorite Vineyard UK Song: Surrender
Favorite Working Week Song: Surrender

I called out this strange individual a few days back.

And this is the response he emailed:

James LaPorta

Oct 5

 

to me

 

Hey son,

Long time, no chat. Appreciate the advice, but the bullshit meter is full, so unfortunately, I can’t take anymore advice right now. Anytime you want to compare writing careers, I’m available.

Stay out of trouble, kid. And keep those fingers flying across that keyboard of yours, you little rascal, you.

Sincerely,

James LaPorta

--

James M. LaPorta

Journalist | Documentary Producer | Former U.S. Marine

Bylines at: The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast

(C) 202-650-0089

Twitter: @JimLaPorta

Website: www.jameslaporta.net

For Encryption: SIGNAL and TELEGRAM

Fingerprint: 1EE4 2581 B0D6 1C8E C131 A635 4EC2 B5D2 7728 669F

Confidential: This communication contains confidential and/or privileged information and is intended only for the person or entity named. Anyone other than the intended recipient, or the named recipient's employee or agent responsible for delivering this communication to the named recipient, is prohibited from reading, copying, distributing, disseminating, or otherwise using the information contained in this communication.

Compare careers? Well, I want to say upfront that popularity doesn't directly equate to accomplishment. But okay.

My first novel was Freehold.

It sold out the entire first print run in 3 weeks, was nominated for the Prometheus Award, the Compton Crook Award, and was a #3 Locus Bestseller. So against all the other SF and related titles that month--including any Star Trek, Star Wars, game and movie tie ins, it was the 3rd best seller. Eventually they did a signed, limited edition, which literally sold every copy. There are none left. (Obviously, used ones occasionally may show up on Amazon or eBay. But they're all in the secondary market.) It's in it's 5th printing.

I do credit cover artist David Mattingly, who's done album covers for The Commodores and Michael Jackson, among others, with helping it sell so well. His work is amazing.

Let's look at what James has on the market:

Wait, not even a single self-published piece of crap? At all?

Well, unless I'm missing something critical, he doesn't have a writing career.

Oh, well. Back to the one with a career: Me.

Before Freehold even was in print, I pretty much immediately landed a work for hire contract for these three books:

Which were sold everywhere, including my local Kroger. They got republished in omnibus by the Military Book Club, who rarely do fiction, preferring nonfiction.

There was a query about a Polish translation, but HarperCollins never followed through.

I did get fanmail from the 160th SOAR, including from a pilot with over 2000 flight hours, that I was able to verify.

In and amongst those, John Ringo, NYT bestseller, handed me a project someone else had devised and fallen through on. I completed it to his satisfaction, and it was a #8 Locus Bestseller. It was also a SF Book Club reprint. There's a German translation, and I'm told a Russian one as well, though I haven't seen that one.

The Weapon

This got me fanmail from bona fide SEALs and Green Berets. The kind who actually give you their class number to verify, and even their challenge coins. And from some of their support people. I'm not sure why it got a Prometheus nomination, but it did. The hardcover is collectible and sells for $100 and up in top condition, depending on how many are floating around at a given time.

Better to Beg Forgiveness...

BtBF sold out its entire hardcover print run in a month. I think it qualified for some stuff, but I mostly worry about the money. It's still one of my best sellers a decade later.

I actually wrote a big chunk of Contact with Chaos while deployed to the Sandbox in 2008, when not on long hours of duty. It kept me sane.

Do Unto Others... still sells reliably in all editions, like all my SF--Hardcover, paperback, Audible, Baen eBook, Kindle, Nook.

I wrote in this shared universe with some very well known authors, though only 1/3 the book is mine:

Rogue continue the story arc of The Weapon. Once again I got fanmail from professionals--both special operators, and investigators.

When Diplomacy Fails... is the third segment of the Ripple Creek universe. Just look for the ellipsis.

Tour of Duty compiled my existing short stories, essays and some snark, that were originally written for writers like Joe Haldeman and Mercedes Lackey. James has probably never heard of them, either. That says more about him than them.

Wisdom from my Internet was a joke, as was the publication by "Patriarchy Press" which is owned by my girlfriend--a minority female. With advanced degrees. And her own side career of writing. And a major job with a real security clearance for an aerospace contractor. It was a #1 Amazon bestseller in political humor. It got nominated for an award, and I'm relieved it didn't win. It earned money, though.

A Long Time Until Now sold out its hardcover print run so fast I barely got any. Good luck finding any.

Now, the NYT bestseller list is hard to crack, and I will freely admit I haven't managed that yet. One thing to keep in mind is for that list, it's only certain stores that count, within the week, in certain genres--they don't acknowledge Romance or Western, for example, because Romance would own the list.

Bookscan, though, monitors distribution sales and categorizes by genre. ALTUN was a National Bestseller in SF, per Bookscan. It also got a legitimate screen query from someone who does things with Universal Pictures. Let's not hold our breath--it took 30 years for Ender's Game to reach the screen. But I have the query and it's floating about.

Tick of the Clock did better than I expected for a self pub, and Travis deserves credit for being patient with me while I was somewhat sick.

Angeleyes also was a National Bestseller, and nominated for a Prometheus. Once again it was a tough, worthy field and I didn't win. That's infinitely more nominations than James, though.

I was a single parent while writing this, btw.

Forged in Blood is also a National Bestseller. It's selling and reviewing tremendously well.

That's it to date.

Well, this is pending: Tide of Battle

Which includes work I did for Kevin J. Anderson and Janet Morris. Heard of them? James hasn't, I'm sure.

And I just finished two more short pieces, one of which may become a TV project, because the person running the project actually does have TV credits. The other short may become a book, because the editor liked it that much. Note that "May" is not "Will." It's a flexible industry.

I have a collaboration on spec mostly finished.

I have contracts on another Ripple Creek and two more time travel novels, one of which is being written now.

I have another short on contract, one on spec, another collab novel on spec with a verbal go-ahead from the publisher, meaning we'll ink a contract when done or I finish some others, and another collab in the planning stages. I have about 40% of the content I need for another collection. I'm trying to organize another anthology and waiting for the publisher to look at numbers.

I'm still the stay at home parent for a three year old while doing this.

My full bibliography is here.

I have cover quotes from, among others, Locus, Analog and Publisher's Weekly.

James...doesn't.

According to associates overseas and in the US Navy, you can find my books in:

The American Book Center in the Hague and Amsterdam, and in fact, I've done book signings there.

Most military Exchanges. (I've signed at several of those, too. Ft Knox, Ft Meade, several Army and Air bases in the Middle East and Europe.)

Hong Kong.

Singapore.

The southernmost English speaking library, in New Zealand.

Oh, yes -- my publisher pays for my book signing trips and gives away free books to the troops. Because when you are a professional, your publisher has a budget to promote you.

It's not a hugely household name career like Terry Brooks or Terry Pratchet, but it does keep me in upper class lifestyle. I'm not rich, but I'm certainly comfortable.

Where can you find James' books? Trick question. He doesn't have any books.

So, let's look at James' other writing career:

• Medium --vanity, doesn't pay.
• Daily Beast -- as far as I know, doesn't pay.
• WaPoo -- Now, according to professionals in the newspaper industry, op-eds that aren't penned by the hired staff don't get paid. They just offer exposure. You know, that thing you die from in winter.

Blogs and clickbait sites don't pay anyone. They can't afford to. Hell, they can't even afford facts.

Sample article: "Can Shia LeBeouf Convey The Trauma Of Combat?"

Come on, Chia the Poof can't even run a "performance art" camera of him bleating about the president.

PROTIP 1: If you're not getting paid for it, you're not a professional.

He's written a half dozen things while stringing for UPI, and man, James couldn't wait to fuck those dead bodies in Vegas to blather out his complete erroneous bullshit about how "Rifling is also the bullet weight in grains" and "a free floated barrel isn't connected to the rifle" (allegedly told to him by someone in Special Forces, even though Wikipedia or any of a thousand online fora could have explained it in small words. But I digress). The problem is, while UPI does pay a little, it doesn't pay enough to interest any professional writer. In fact, I probably got paid more for my last short story than he got paid for all of it. UTI, excuse me, UPI is for people who hope to eventually rise to the level of working for some local paper. Of course, having your alma mater Marine Corps ban you from one of their bases for interfering with a case in progress won't help your odds of getting hired.

Oh, and he's "Assistant Editor" of something called "Blue Force Tracker" which is referenced twice on Newsmax, which is almost as credible as the Weekly World News. Now, BFT is a GPS based system for watching for friendly forces. You can find a lot of that. Searching for it as a magazine, journal, paper, blog...it doesn't exist as far as I can tell. It's complete bullshit.

James says he's "Never heard of me." Likewise. Which is why I used Google before opening my trap.

He's not Walter Winchell. He's not even Clifford Simak. (I know James has never heard of him.)

I have a few articles. My unpaid stuff was for several Second Amendment sites, because I was promoting a valid cause WITH FACTS. Readership was only a couple of million people. My paid stuff has been in firearm mags, too, at up to $1/word. Including some in other countries.

Also, I prefer to use references in my articles, not vague references to someone who is claimed to have been in Special Forces:

And I'm Editor at Large for Survivalblog.com which is easy to find, has a huge following, and will acknowledge me, though to be honest, I haven't done much recently due to other commitments. But it does actually exist.

PROTIP 2: No professional is ever actually insulted by, "I've never heard of you." For example: That country music star at the shooting in Vegas? Never heard of him. I don't listen to country music. But I'm sure a few seconds on Google will find he is of note and has lots of fans and customers.

Moving on, then.

James claims to be a film producer. Well, I'm not. But I have appeared in productions, and consulted to others. For friends doing film festival stuff locally, I'm cheap or free. For some of these with national media, I billed $1000/day and got it.

So, let's check IMDB for James:

Nothing here, either.

PROTIP 3: Cell phone video does not count as professional film to anyone in the industry unless it's incorporated into something else and you're paid for it.

James knows even less about producing films than he does about firearms.

Let's check Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Z._Williamson

Here I am, though the page is out of date. I'm sure it'll get fixed eventually. I make no attempt to edit it.

James:

Not notable by their standards either, apparently.

Wow. That's 0 for 4 so far.

He does have 8 Patreon followers though.

Now, to be fair, I joined Patreon way back, and realized it didn't do anything I needed it to do since I don't produce daily content. I've never looked at it since, and have neither delivered anything nor been paid. So possibly he's the same.

I doubt it, though, since he makes a point of linking to it.

But to give the benefit of the doubt, we'll call this one a draw.

What about our former military careers?

My military career was pretty much unremarkable and I freely admit so. I enlisted in 1985, retired in 2010, had about 5 years and a bit active duty including deployment time, the rest being split between Army and Air National Guard. I helped with the Mississippi Flood in 1993 for about six weeks, have a few decorations for doing small things, and some unit decorations for maintaining an amazing level of mission accomplishment during blasting sand in the Sandbox. The unit gets credit. I was part of the unit.

Oh, I DID have 25 years of Expert ratings, competed in rifle match for the Army Guard and won trophies. And even though it wasn't my specialty, I served as an armorer, was a range safety NCO, ammo point NCO, helped my unit upgrade M16s to A2 standard, was a weapons courier.

And then in the civilian world I conduct tests and evaluations of weapons sent to me by manufacturers, such as this one.

And make my own from raw materials, such as this one:

And this one:

And custom build them to fit various users like this one:

Because really, there's nothing about a rifle that's anywhere as difficult as riding a bike.

I've furnished weapons for several TV show segments, a couple of movies, god knows how many magazine articles, and my projects have appeared on thousands of sites, dozens of magazines including Time and Der View, Forgotten Weapons and some other outlets.

Note that I did most of these while being the primary parent, and when my wife was activated, the single parent at home (then we swapped when I deployed.) (And note the books I wrote, too.)

Whereas, James was...a Marine.

Per the record someone furnished, he has a Marine Combat Action Medal [EDIT:  He contacted me and noted this is a Dept Navy award. Either way, it does show on his official record, so we'll credit him with it]. So it appears he was actually in at least one firefight, though I don't find any other decoration around his combat, which is neither bad nor good. Circumstances and leadership have to coincide for that. It appears he deployed and did his job, but damn, does he look really, really clean in that photo of him in A-stan. I never looked that clean even inside the wire, even stateside in a field exercise. Even on daily duty. I'm not one to judge. He may just be really, really good at field hygiene. Good on you, sport.

Really, really clean.

Then he was bumped to what he calls "Secret Squirrel."

I asked some actual Secret Squirrels about this--one veteran who works for a Cabinet department on terrorist activities, one field grade intel unit commander, and one actual analyst. They concurred with what I suspected.

So in actuality, he was basically a secretary who "Managed" probably 2-3 troops including himself, to bug the squad leaders to make sure their SALUTE reports (Google it) were turned in, placed into some semblance of order, handed to a compiler who gridded them for an analyst who reviewed them and sent the data to a supervisor who submitted that on a mass report to actual Secret Squirrels who then furnished the polished outcome to Command to aid in issuing orders.

Now, this is certainly important work. So is being a secretary. But it bears the same resemblance to being a "Secret Squirrel" that being a secretary bears to being a Department Manager.

It's vaguely possible he was in one of the few of these elements that actually did real intel work, but most of them were in elite units. And since James is unable to use Google to even get basic facts about the rifle he was issued correct, it seems highly unlikely he was any better in a strange country. Hell, he can barely parse English, much less Pashto.

Oh, and it turns out one of my readers was in his unit:
~~~
Coop LoPresto: Yeah, he was an intelfag that sucked at being an intelfag. Got passed over/soft-fired out of leading a CLIC during a cycle at CAX (Desert Warfare Training. Basically a final exam before your infantry BN's able to deploy to the sandbox) and before that he did retarded shit like bringing his own EoTech to ranges and field ops and shit. He was a "marksmanship instructor," as he was wont to point out, but in reality he was just a range coach because his shop didn't want him around to do any real S2 work. And was just generally disliked for both his level of competency and personality. Which is probably why he went on to break the Marines United story. I didn't interact with him enough to remember who the fuck he was until all my boys who did know who he was began to regale me with his "exploits" when I started commenting on his dumbassery.

EDIT: In email, he confirms the EoTech incident is true.  Oh, son! You just qualified a source as credible and reliable. And you worked in intel?  God help us.

~~~

PROTIP 4: "Secret Squirrel" is a joke in the intel community, because those who actually are don't talk about it. They say their job is "Boring" or they "process data" or "shuffle papers" or are "value-added paper pushers." Because actual secret squirrels have actual intel that could be of interest to foreign agencies and major corporations, and don't crave attention.

So basically, he's not a relevant writer, knows so little about weapons it's frightening the Marines let him be a grunt, but that's likely why he was "promoted" to a paperwork cell where he couldn't do any damage, and why he left a career about halfway to retirement, and doesn't seem to have any job of note. And we can deduce the probable actual reason he joined the Corps was the thrill of showering naked with twenty o/t/h/e/r/ men. (Not that I object to him showering with other men. But there are bathhouses for that. The Marines have a mission to do.)

Oh, we could also compare ASVAB scores if he wishes. Mine are simple: I maxed every category in the 99th %ile. I can scan a RIP to prove it.

I suspect James didn't. $50 on that.

Oddly, I can't find any reference to the USMC, or any other branch of the military, taking any interest at all in bumpfire stocks that somehow make weapons more powerful (By magically increasing bullet energy?), or change the rifling rate (Which is "also the bullet weight in grains"?) or improve accuracy (By disconnecting the barrel from the rifle?).

I wonder if, now that the military is aware of this awesome device, they'll upgrade all their existing inventory to be more powerful, accurate and deadly.<?p>

I have $1000 says no. Put up or shut up.

Oh, right, James. You haven't earned enough from writing to afford that. Okay. Let's make it $20.

PROTIP 5: Before challenging someone to compare careers, check Google, and be sure you have a career, not just a lame joke with no punchline.

But YOU keep pounding the keys, you little rascal, you! Work on your spelling, grammar, punctuation, structure, coherence, and of course, read some books to get some facts, and maybe someday you'll have TWENTY Patreon followers, and can earn enough per month to pay for a dinner at Denny's rather than KFC.

And if I've actually missed anything, I stand ready to be corrected. You threw down the gauntlet, I've picked it up. First shot is yours, big boy. And you know what they say about silence. (Actually, apparently you don't.) [UPDATE: see below, he proved this adage too.]

Toodles, you giant soup sandwich.

NOTE: Anyone is welcome to cite, link or copy the entirety of these contents to refute the worthless little shwit.

UPDATE: Apparently his idea of a retort is to accuse me of writing "nerd books."

Yes, well I'm about to take my royalty check from writing "nerd books" and have a $200 steak dinner and buy a $13,000 real machine gun (no bumpfire stock), because I have the disposable income to do so.

Ironically, the facts about weapons in my "nerd books" are more accurate than in his "nonfiction" "Articles."

Which is why I get paid that kind of money, and he doesn't get paid to speak of.

UPDATE: a few of the fans of those "nerd books" at a small convention just donated $17,000 to charity. https://www.facebook.com/LibertyCon/posts/10155122920663481

REPORTER: Hey, I need some basic facts. Who's knowledgeable?  You? So tell me about the shoulder thing that goes up.

EXPERT:  I've been a professional in the field for 45 years as a user, designer, manufacturer, expert witness.  So, there actually isn't a shoulder thing that goes up.  I think they were referencing...

REPORTER: Wait, you're some kind of gun nut, aren't you? Fuck off.   You're biased. What about you?

"ACTIVIST": I'm President of the Association For Banning Bumpfire Shoulder Things, a 501(c)4 agency.  AR15s were invented by Ronald Reagan in 1981, and are issued to all felons as they leave prison because of a loophole allowed to exist by the GW Bush administration.

REPORTER: Good stuff! Keep going.

Yes, this subject brought out all the nuts.

BACKGROUND: Over the years, a number of Viking era graves were found with swords.  The base assumption was that these were all males, and military.  A lot of us always insisted this was a false assumption. Swords were often a mark of rank and wealth (and still are). It meant the interred was of status, not necessarily a warrior. 

Then, some DNA tests showed a lot of them were actually female.

This is where the screeching harpies came in with their popular conspiracy that there were literally thousands of women in this and every generation who were doing the things men did, and then somehow erased from history so no one would ever know, over and over. This is of course, ridiculous on several levels.

Then the small-dicks got into it because obviously, no woman ever measured up, so the females had swords as marks of rank, but the men were still probably warriors.

So here's the problem with that:  If the sword is the mark of a martial person, you don't present it to a non-martial person, except to honor them for something martial. (Much like the US has civilian and military decorations, and civilians can't earn the military ones, except for a rare handful like the Civilian Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, who fought as combatants because there was no choice).

Once again, as a lot of us said, those swords were badges of rank, and may or may not indicate the owner was ever part of the military caste, or ever fought.

The Sagas and other documents record a small number of women fighting as combatants in the Viking Era. Let's go through them one at a time:

When Leif Erikson's pregnant half-sister Freydís Eiríksdóttir was in Vinland, she is reported to have taken up a sword, and, bare-breasted, scared away the attacking Skrælings.[6] The fight is recounted in the Greenland saga.

So, this woman fought in extremis.  NOTE: She had enough familiarity with a sword to reach for it rather than some other weapon, apparently confident she could use it to some effect, and said sword was available where she could readily reach it.  This implies at least some basic familiarization in case of emergency. And that it's documented this way shows no negative or questionable perception around her doing so.

Before that, we find:

Saxo Grammaticus reported that shieldmaidens fought on the side of the Danes at the Battle of Brávellir in the year 750:

Now out of the town of Sle, under the captains Hetha (Heid) and Wisna, with Hakon Cut-cheek came Tummi the Sailmaker. On these captains, who had the bodies of women, nature bestowed the souls of men. Webiorg was also inspired with the same spirit, and was attended by Bo (Bui) Bramason and Brat the Jute, thirsting for war.

These women are presented as unusual. Notice they had "The souls of men." To engage in martial activities, they couldn't be "women" in the context of the culture. That's important, and we'll come back to that.

But in context, they're presented positively. It's not "The Danes were such wimps even their women led them into battle."  It's "Holy crap, the Danes even had two women who were worthy."

The Byzantine historian John Skylitzes records that women fought in battle when Sviatoslav I of Kiev attacked the Byzantines in Bulgaria in 971. When the Varangians (not to be confused with the Byzantine Varangian Guard) had suffered a devastating defeat in the Siege of Dorostolon, the victors were stunned at discovering armed women among the fallen warriors.

This battle was rather one-sided. The Rus (related to the Vikings) got slaughtered. Once again, the women fought because they had to; they were going to die anyway. They armored up as the men, went out, and presumably had at least minimal training to make them more than meat shields. How much more we don't know.

Nor would the Byzantines be inclined to lie and claim they were fighting women if they weren't. It's not manly.

The Rus clearly accepted the idea and did the best with it.

Lagertha's tale is recorded in passages in the ninth book of the Gesta Danorum, a twelfth-century work of Danish history by Saxo Grammaticus. According to the Gesta (¶ 9.4.1–9.4.11), Lagertha's career as a warrior began when Frø, king of Sweden, invaded Norway and killed the Norwegian king Siward. Frø put the women of the dead king's family into a brothel for public humiliation. Hearing of this, Ragnar Lodbrok came with an army to avenge his grandfather Siward. Many of the women Frø had ordered abused dressed themselves in men's clothing and fought on Ragnar's side. Chief among them, and key to Ragnar's victory, was Lagertha. Saxo recounts:

Ladgerda, a skilled Amazon, who, though a maiden, had the courage of a man, and fought in front among the bravest with her hair loose over her shoulders. All-marvelled at her matchless deeds, for her locks flying down her back betrayed that she was a woman.

Impressed with her courage, Ragnar courted her from afar. Lagertha feigned interest and Ragnar arrived to seek her hand, bidding his companions wait in the Gaular valley. He was set upon by a bear and a great hound which Lagertha had guarding her home, but killed the bear with his spear and choked the hound to death. Thus he won the hand of Lagertha in marriage. According to Saxo, Ragnar had a son with her, Fridleif, as well as two daughters, whose names are not recorded.

So, once again, she fought because she had to, as did the other women.

Now, this may be partly fictionalized, so we go to context:

The women are held in respect for assisting in their own rescue.

The purposed of enbrotheling them was humiliation, not disgrace--it was to bring them down, not to imply shame to their families (other than by not being able to protect them). Quite a few cultures would shun or even execute those women for having been raped. In this case, despite that, at least one was considered worthy enough to be sought as a wife of status. Nor was it unmanly to marry a woman who fought. It was a positive.

(In Grammaticus's accounts, "dressed in men's clothing" means suitable garb for fighting--pants, tunics, possibly armor.)

So now we come to a recent, fully documented instance:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.23308/full

So, this burial does contain a sword. It also contains an ax, a large langseax that is purely a weapon, not a tool, a two handed axe, a spear, two shields, bodkin tipped arrows, stirrups and two entire horses.

It was first called a male warrior's grave.  Then someone observed the pelvis was probably female. Then it was genetically proven the occupant was female.

Then all of a sudden it wasn't a warrior's grave at all.

Within seconds of me posting this link on my wall, one individual had a complete, screaming, online meltdown. I strongly suspect he actually crapped his pants.

He loudly insisted it couldn't be a warriors grave because no culture ever had female warriors, and posted a link that debunked the feminist claim that half the burials in York were female because they contained swords. This is true. It's also not relevant to this find.

Then he went on to insist that the sagas are just fiction and not relevant, and grave goods don't prove anything and are not relevant, and it was something other than a warrior's grave because it had a female in it and there were no female warriors, and I obviously knew nothing of history.

So, point by point:

"The sagas are fiction and speak of ridiculous fantasies."

True. They also speak to the culture, and we have references above to females fighting in exigent circumstances. They're not foils, comedy relief, or sex objects. They're warriors. That perception is culturally relevant. Also, based on a third hand retelling of Beowulf (not a saga per se), we have found what are probably Heorot and Beowulf's barrow, right where they were described.  We have the same with the Bible, and with Tlingit accounts from the Pacific Northwest of the tsunami that hit about 1700. A saga alone is not evidence, but you can't throw them out entirely. And if you do, you can't also decide to keep them relevant for male history.  This is not only toxic masculinity. This is a dickless little bitch who's terrified of women.

"Grave goods don't prove anything."

Odd. Apparently they did when the grave was "known" to be male. Also, wrong.  If we find valuables in a grave, it's probably not a peasant. If we find a needle case, shears, keys and tweezers, it's probably a female grave. If we find copious weapons, it's probably a warrior's grave. Note "Probably." Not proven, but if you find those female accoutrements, a comb, brooches, etc, you don't assume it's a male ruler. If you find gold, weapons, valuables, you don't assume it's a beggar.

We had this same crap years ago, by the way, when some smal number of the Pharaohs were shown to be women. They were just "Queens buried in Pharaohic context."

"It can't be a warrior's grave because it has a female in it and there were no female warriors."

Circular logic. Once you've defined your circle, nothing can get in or out.

I asked him what type of grave it was if not a warrior's grave. His response: first to claim he didn't need to answer because I'd been rude back to him, therefore "showing my colors." Which of course is an evasion. Then to say it was "some other type of grave of status, but not a warrior's grave" again. He was unable to suggest what type of grave might be full of martial goods but not martial in nature.

I blocked the limp-dicked little shit because he was making rational discussion impossible.

At this point, Dipshit Number Two entered the fray and said, "Even if it was a martial grave, there's no evidence she ever stood in a shield wall, so she's not a warrior."

Wow. Those are some supercharged V8 equipped goalposts there.  No one ever claimed she engaged in any particular act in any particular battle. We don't know. Nor do you, so you can't state a negative either.

My last Army commander was a general who'd never been in combat.  He was still part of the military caste.

Now, we don't have proof the female occupant of this grave ever stuck a spear in someone. This is true. But the grave is a martial grave--multiple weapons, stirrups, which were typically used in martial context. One didn't ride pet or draft horses at speeds that would necessitate them for several reasons. And we have two horses, and a grave the size of a small house, in a military context in a large town. The weapons have not been ritually "killed" to prevent theft. There was no expectation this grave was going to get robbed. This means it was guarded and in an established cemetery.

There are numerous weapons of a working nature. A person of status might wear a sword to court, to council or to diplomatic functions, but if you show up with a skeggox and langseax as well, you aren't there to look pretty. You're there to take someone's head off. These weapons were not tokens.

So in this context, if your culture is so stiff-cocked and manly that women can't ever be warriors (and extant evidence is it was not), you would not EVER put a woman in a grave with martial implements. You'd be disgracing said implements. Would the Arabs do this? Of course not. Just as civilians can't get military medals in our culture. There are civilian medals the President can award them. They don't get ours. Only the military, and only certain segments of the military, can get certain awards and certifications. A civilian might be a complete badass, but he is not a Soldier/Sailor/Marine/Airman. The contextually relevant reference above is the Civilian Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, and a few others, who actually fought with the military in such a fashion and under such circumstances that we said, "You are now of us." They became warriors.

This female is buried in what was always understood to be a martial grave.  End of discussion.

Now, there are varying reasons as to why. She could have been a legit hands-on warrior herself. The evidence is she was in fact a "maiden" as far as marriage went (height, undamaged hips, no partner buried with her, her horses--probably her most trusted and valuable animals--buried with her and not willed to someone). All those make possible that she did in fact kick some Norwegian or Balt ass.

It could be she was the swiftest messenger around, though the fighting axe argues against that.

It could be she was the horse trainer for that element. An important, martial position. But again, the axe isn't quite correct. A spear would be better.

Possibly she was the local countess who donated land and money. This could make her an honorary member of the caste. Though there's no male precedent for this I'm aware of, so it's unlikely.

She might have taken up a male relative's position for vengeance--respected in those cultures and even noted in literature.

She could have been some sort of management or tactical whiz who could outsmart the enemy, though that would still argue for presence on the battlefield, which, even if there's "no evidence she ever stood in a shield wall" (we have no such evidence for anyone that I'm aware of), makes her a warrior.

Without either some attestation, a burial marker, or other evidence, we cannot prove positively which of those she was.  But it is certain that this woman was buried in a martial context by a martial culture, which means they considered her martially relevant enough to dig a hole the size of a small house, put her, her horses, and (adjusted dollars) about $30,000 worth of weapons and accoutrements in with her. And to not put in a single female accoutrement. She was not buried as a woman. She was buried as a warrior.

We have a single confirmed find of a Viking Era woman buried in martial context. This does not mean there were thousands of others. Nor does it mean there were none.

I've been digging a bit more into the I-65 Bridge between Jeffersonville, IN and Louisville, KY.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_U.S._public_works_projects

Fourth most expensive public works project in US history. More expensive than Verazzano Narrows, the Golden Gate, or an entire freeway from Evansville to Indianapolis, and it crosses a few hundred yards of muddy Ohio river. There are bridges out there 5 miles, 10 miles, 100 miles long that didn't cost as much.

To be fair, it does include overhaul of some other bridges.

But, they've already admitted the toll system, supposed to be in place until 2051, will have to run to 2069.  Want to bet on the bridge still being around then? And of course, those tolls will go up every year. They started at $2 each way if you have their transponder, or $4 if they have to mail it to you, because it's so hard to actually compare a license plate to a database and automate a bill.

Yes, I support toll roads IN LIEU OF FEDERAL AND STATE TAX MONEY.  This cost both, and a lot of it.

And I really have to question how they're spending that much on so little.

In the meantime, I detour.  There's simply nothing in Lousyville that requires my attention that badly.